Eye on Ivory Investigations & Inspections U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement helps protect elephants and other global species by enforcing U.S. laws and treaties that regulate trade in elephant ivory and other wildlife parts and products. The United States prohibits commercial import and export of elephant ivory and has done so for decades. Upholding this prohibition has long been a priority for Service Law Enforcement. Investigative Highlights Service special agents have investigated multiple smuggling operations involving the trafficking of elephant ivory for U.S. markets over the past decade. Defendants in these cases have ranged from a Cameroonian prince and an internet ivory entrepreneur operating out of the United Kingdom to U.S. companies dealing in pianos, pool cues, and African art. Some of the Service’s most significant investigations of ivory trafficking are spotlighted below. United States v. Victor Gordon In this investigation, Service special agents documented the large-scale smuggling of newly acquired ivory from West Africa disguised to “pass” as old ivory and antique tribal carvings and seized over one ton of elephant ivory – the largest seizure in U.S. history. U.S. businessman Victor Gordon, the owner of an African art and antiques store in Philadelphia, is scheduled for sentencing early in 2014 after having pleaded guilty to smuggling last year. Gordon was originally indicted on 10 felony counts, which included Lacey Act violations and conspiracy charges. According to the indictment, Gordon paid a co-conspirator to travel to Africa to purchase raw elephant ivory and have it carved to his specifications. In advance of the trips, Gordon provided the co-conspirator with photographs or other depictions of ivory carvings, which served as templates for the ivory carvers in Africa, and directed the co-conspirator to stain or dye the elephant ivory so that the specimens would appear old. Gordon then planned and financed the illegal importation of the ivory from Africa to the United States through John F. Kennedy International Airport and sold the carvings to customers at his store in Philadelphia and other buyers as “antiques.” His plea agreement calls for forfeiture of all of the seized ivory and $150,000 in trafficking proceeds. New York City Ivory Sales In this case, Service investigators teamed with officers from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation to probe illegal ivory sales by a New York City jewelry distributor and two Manhattan retailers. This investigation, which began after an off- duty wildlife inspector noted an elaborate display of elephant ivory products in a store window in the city, documented a booming and unauthorized trade in ivory. Because of the complexities of tracing ivory at the point of retail back to the point of import and of U.S. ivory regulations, prosecutions were pursued by the Attorney General for the State of New York based on violations of State laws regulating the sale of elephant ivory. The stores prosecuted paid $50,000 in fines and forfeited over one ton of elephant ivory (which will be destroyed at the “Ivory Crush”). The distributor forfeited 70 pounds of elephant ivory valued at $30,000 and paid $10,000 restitution. U.S./Royal Thai Police Transcontinental Ivory Trafficking Service special agents and the Thai Royal Police worked together to secure the 2010 U.S. indictment of two businessmen (the owner of a Los Angeles area donut shop and a Thai trafficker) and four arrests in Thailand in a case that exposed transcontinental trafficking in elephant ivory. Over the course of this five-year undercover investigation, officers showed that ivory was being smuggled from Africa into Thailand by Thai operatives who then sold it to clients in the United States and other countries. The investigation began in 2006 when Service wildlife inspectors conducting an inspection “blitz” at the international mail facility in Los Angeles intercepted a package of elephant ivory that had been mailed to a U.S. business from Thailand labeled as toys. The U.S. defendant pleaded guilty to Federal charges. Operation Scratchoff This multi-year investigation, which was launched by the Service in New York in 2006, documented and disrupted the illegal activities of both international smugglers who were bringing ivory into the country unlawfully from Africa and U.S. retailers involved in this black market trade. Over the course of the investigation, Service special agents documented smuggled ivory entering the United States from Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Small portion of the ivory seized from Victor Gordon USFWS